


i’ll wait for you (i’ve got enough love for two)

by OceanMyth



Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [40]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Mutual Pining, katara just wants to keep her crush warm, love me some tender pining, mai's hair smells like jasmine, there's so much tender pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 06:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30017220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceanMyth/pseuds/OceanMyth
Summary: “It’s a lot chillier out here than I thought it would be.” Katara can barely hear Mai’s voice over the howling wind and crashing spray of the ocean. Once she understands, she finds herself frowning. There’s not a lot she can do to make Mai more comfortable, aside from offering up her parka— something she’s not sure that Mai would accept.Mai’s delicate lips are pale and colorless, in shades that are a suspiciously short distance from blue. Katara has to do something, or the other girl is going to wind up with frostbite.
Relationships: Katara/Mai (Avatar)
Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [40]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2113209
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	i’ll wait for you (i’ve got enough love for two)

“It’s a lot chillier out here than I thought it would be.” Katara can barely hear Mai’s voice over the howling wind and crashing spray of the ocean. Once she understands, she finds herself frowning. There’s not a lot she can do to make Mai more comfortable, aside from offering up her parka— something she’s not sure that Mai would accept.

Mai’s delicate lips are pale and colorless, in shades that are a suspiciously short distance from blue. Katara has to do  _ something, _ or the other girl is going to wind up with frostbite.

So she scoots along the railing of the ship, until she’s firmly pressed up against Mai’s side. The places they are touching are a line of fire. Katara’s not sure she’s ever been so aware of her own skin in her life. She can see Mai swallow nervously out of the corner of her eye— she’s just as nervous as Mai, but she doesn’t let it show on her face.

Neither of them move. Seconds pass, in the bobbing of the ship on the wave, and the fluttering of her heart. Katara’s heart curls up in her throat like a leaf withered by frost, before Mai sighs and gives in, relaxing against her side. 

She slides an arm around Mai’s waist and Mai goes tense and tight against her side once more. There’s a pattern to it— a give and take of their motions that Katara is intimately familiar with— it’s easy for her to wait out the tension once again.

Familiar as she is with the pattern, Mai’s head on her shoulder is still an unexpected thrill. Mai’s hair smells like jasmine and fire-lilies somehow, though they have been at sea for over a week, and it’s much softer than it has any right to be.

When her eyes meet Katara’s there is hesitant warmth in them. Katara pulls her mitten off her hand, and offers it to Mai. 

She expects Mai to take the mitten.

Mai takes her hand instead.

Mai’s hands are rougher than she’d expected from Fire Nation nobility, with thin ropes of scar tissue winding along the curve of her thumb and running along and between her fingers. Katara can’t help letting her own fingers trace along the silver lines.

“Do they hurt?” Katara asks, her curiosity getting the better of her. Mai’s lips turn down ever so slightly.

“Yeah. Sometimes.” Mai shrugs before twitching her fingers, like she wants Katara to let go of her hand. Katara refuses, holding Mai’s hand just a little tighter, until the other girl relaxes again. She’s not sure how else she can tell Mai that she’s sorry, that her scars don’t matter, that it’s just nice to hold her hand, without using words. Words that seem too big and frightening to say in even a soft and quiet moment like this.

Spending time with Mai has taught her how much even the smallest of words can mean, and now conversation seems like a daunting task, a careful balance to be kept. Katara doesn’t want to know what will happen if she upsets that balance. Or at least that’s what she tells herself.

“The cold makes them ache worse.” It’s said like a peace offering, like Mai understood what Katara had been trying to say with her hands and heart.

Katara reaches for the water pouch tied to her belt. “Here— let me try something.”

Mai hasn’t blinked, even as she nods her permission. Katara can’t meet her eyes. She’s not sure how Mai could ever be described as cold— the feeling of her eyes burns a flush into Katara’s cheeks easily. She uncorks the water-pouch, her fingers flick, and a small arc of water comes to rest on Mai’s fingers, running along the silver lines and thicker ropes of scar tissue. 

Normally she immerses herself in healing entirely— this time, she finds herself sneaking looks at her patient’s face, as the water on her hands begins to glow, brightest in the places where their hands are laced together.

There’s a lump in her throat as she finally untangles her hands from Mai’s, and returns the water to the pouch. She’s done all that she could do, and it wouldn’t be right for her to keep up a charade, no matter how she wants to look at their entwined hands forever.

“Did that help?” Katara asks, almost hoping that Mai will say no, and that she can go back to holding her hands to chase away the chill. 

But Mai nods.

“You should keep a hold of my hands, though.” The pink in Mai’s cheeks isn’t solely from the cold— Katara hopes at least. “Just to be sure.”

Katara nods, and lets her cheek rest against the top of Mai’s head. “Just to be sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> i have noticed that the difference between Gen & Teen for me has become the sheer amount of pining present in a work. Do with this information what you will~
> 
> tell me what you thought in the comments, or on tumblr @justoceanmyth!


End file.
